Press Release  AG Healey Cites Transportation Company Nearly $500,000 for Misclassification and Overtime Violations

Boston — A medical transportation business and its managers were cited $460,945 in restitution and penalties for violating workers’ rights and state wage laws, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today.

The AG’s Office began investigating Watertown-based Quantum Transportation LLC and its managers, Andrey Borzy and Aliaksei Rudy, after receiving complaints from workers who alleged they were misclassified and were not paid the appropriate overtime rate. Quantum Transportation, which closed in 2016, operated throughout the state providing medical transportation services.

“When employers misclassify their workers as independent contractors, they cheat their employees of their wages and other important job protections,” said AG Healey. “My office is committed to taking action when companies don’t play by the rules.”

Independent contractors are not entitled to many legal rights that protect employees, such as workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and overtime. The AG’s investigation revealed that while Quantum was primarily funded under a MassHealth contract to provide medical transportation services for MassHealth clients, workers were misclassified as independent contractors. The investigation also revealed that the company failed to pay these employees overtime.

The citations against Quantum and its managers require payment of restitution to 141 former employees and penalties to the Commonwealth.

Workers who believe that their rights have been violated in their workplace are encouraged to file a complaint at www.mass.gov/ago/wagetheft. For information about the state’s wage and hour laws, workers may call the Office’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465 or go to the Attorney General’s new Workplace Rights website www.mass.gov/ago/fairlabor for materials in multiple languages.

As a part of its continued efforts to protect workers and their families in Massachusetts, the AG’s Office issued its third annual Labor Day Report on the office’s efforts to address wage theft and other forms of worker exploitation earlier this month. The report shows that in fiscal year 2018, the office opened 729 cases and assessed more than $9.6 million in restitution and penalties against employers on behalf of working people in Massachusetts.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Amy Goyer and Investigator Paul Gordon of the AG’s Fair Labor Division.

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